New scanners not imminent at Mitchell

Advanced full-body scanners are being unveiled at some airports around the country, including O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, but don’t expect the technology at Milwaukee’s General Mitchell International Airport in the immediate future.

The Department of Homeland Security recently began installing advanced imaging technology units at 11 U.S. airports as part of the economic stimulus bill’s $1 billion investment in aviation security.

The first of the new advanced imaging technology scanners, which screen passengers for metallic and nonmetallic items, were installed at Boston’s Logan International, the departure point for two of the planes used in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

Three other Midwest airports have received the scanners, including Port Columbus International in Columbus, Ohio; Kansas City International; and Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International.

Although Mitchell isn’t among the first airports to receive the scanners paid for with federal stimulus funds, the airport is likely to receive the technology at some point, airport spokeswoman Pat Rowe said.

“I’m sure we will be getting them, but I don’t know when,” she said.

James Fotenos, spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration, declined to speculate on when, or even if, Mitchell will receive the scanners, except to say that it likely won’t be this year.

Before these stimulus-funded purchases, 40 advanced imaging technology units had been in place at 19 airports round the country. About 450 units were expected to be deployed by the end of the year and more than 1,000 should be in place by 2011, Fotenos said.

The American Civil Liberties Union has denounced the scanners as a "virtual strip search." The TSA said the images are viewed in a remote area and the images are automatically deleted from the system.

The new units use millimeter wave technology as opposed to backscatter X-ray.